Q: I read that Homeland Security is recommending Windows QuickTime be un-installed. I have Windows 7. What do you suggest?

A: The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, issued Alert (TA16-105A) on April 14 indicating that Apple will no longer be providing security updates for QuickTime for Windows.

QuickTime is vulnerable to attack; without the security updates to keep it secure, the application becomes a security risk when running on your computer.

QuickTime will continue to work, but I would recommend removing it if you don't need it. If you are looking for a good alternative to QuickTime, I suggest VideoLAN, which is one of the best media-player applications I have ever used. You can download it from videolan.org.

Jay Lee

The website is a great resource for all things related to computer security and well worth a bookmark.

Q: Is there an application like Find My iPhone that I can install on my Windows laptop that would allow me to track it if it were stolen or lost?

A: The Find My iPhone feature available for Apple devices is really quite useful, especially on GPS-enabled devices like an iPhone.

The problem with laptops is that they are not equipped with GPS, so location-based security is not as effective as it is based on the geographic location of the IP address assigned to the laptop. And that requires the computer to be connected to the Internet.